


Bumblebee

by dumbdpaus



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: But mostly fluff, Fluff, Gen, abuse of the phrase 'bless her heart', slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-10 01:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20127394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbdpaus/pseuds/dumbdpaus
Summary: Danny and Maddie are visiting Aunt Alicia's ranch, and Danny decides to live into the whole Southern Belle thing





	Bumblebee

Maddie had never been much of a baker, but Danny had insisted that since they were “—on an _ estate, _ seriously Mom, it’s summertime on a _ country estate_. We have to sit on the porch and gossip over cookies and lemonade. It’s, like, the law.”

Maddie thought calling her sister’s farm a “country estate” was a little disingenuous, but she hadn’t seen Danny look so excited in what felt like forever. So they baked some (slightly crispy) chocolate chip cookies, took some fresh squeezed lemonade from the fridge, and sat out in Alicia’s porch rocking chairs.

“Are you _ sure _ Aunt Alicia doesn’t have any bonnets for us to wear?” Danny asked, crunching on another cookie.

A bumblebee buzzed up to Maddie’s drink, drawn by the sweetness. The midsummer air was heavy and thick and humid. The sweat stuck to her skin, gluing her jumpsuit to her back. Cicadas screeched on the wind; she’d forgotten just how _ loud _ it was this time of year.

Maddie giggled. “It’s not the nineteenth century, kiddo, and your Aunt Alicia really isn’t a Southern Belle.”

_ Crunch crunch crunch_. “You’re supposed to say ‘bless her heart,’ aren’t you?”

“What?”

“That’s how you gossip on a country estate! You know, ‘bless her heart, but that Jasmine has such a bee in her bonnet about—about _ everything_!’”

Maddie swatted at Danny’s hand, but the corners of her lips curved upwards. “Don’t be mean to your sister, young man.”

He grinned at her. “But I said bless her heart! That makes it okay!”

Maddie put her hand over her lips to hide her growing smile. “So you mean if I said, ‘bless his heart, but Daniel just has such an uncouth tongue’, it would be fine?”

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard Danny laugh, but now he was chuckling—chuckling _ at her_, at something _ she said_, and lord, she’d missed this.

“Exactly!” Danny said. He put on a high-pitched Southern accent. “Oh, that Jack Fenton, bless his heart, he just spends all his money on fudge, the poor dear.”

Maddie threw her head back and laughed, no longer pretending to disapprove. The little bumblebee landed on her glass of lemonade before moving onto the cookies. 

Danny affected the Southern Belle voice again. “Bless her heart, that Sam Manson dresses like she’s in mourning for everyone who’s _ about _ to die. It’s so… unseemly.”

Raising her own voice and slipping back into her Arkansas accent, Maddie said, “I do declare, that Pamela Manson, bless her heart, she is just so terribly nosy! Can’t keep herself to herself.” She heaved a sigh, hand over her heart.

Two days later, they would go back to Amity Park, and Danny would lie to her again. He would sneak around and skip class and get hurt doing who-knows-what and then ignore her when she begged to know what was going on. She would go into his room a week later in the middle of the night and find it empty, his bed cold. She would sit down and cry into his pillow.

Today, though, the sun was bright and warm, and Danny was hunched over, wheezing with laughter. The bee bumbled into her cheek, cicadas screamed their discordant song, and she thought perhaps that things could start to be different.

**Author's Note:**

> please come visit me at reallydumbdannyphantomaus.tumblr.com!


End file.
